This is Christmas: San Gil Edition

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With our mountain experience covered, we decided to head to San Gil... which is stil in the mountains, but, you know, different mountains. And that meant a long bus journey first.

Before going to bed we'd checked the bus times. The Gacela bus stop showed that the busses left at 3:30am and 5:30am. Radio had told us that the buses 3:00am and 5:00am, but we were kind of through with trusting Radio at this point. But we should have, because we decided to get up at 4:30am, and by the time we were ready, we got outside just in time to see the nice comfortable Libertadores bus leaving town. Dammit. One minute too late.

The town blared it's Christmas carol music again, and the church started filling up with people for 5:00am mass. Again, when do people sleep? We took a look inside, and there were flashing Christmas lights on the statue of Mary. Love it.

Vanessa grabbed a coffee and we waited for the Gacela bus to leave at 5:30am, which was a much less comfortable mini bus. It was going to be a tough eight hours.

The bus left Guican and stopped in El Cocuy and waited there for almost half an hour. Dammit. Once again, staying in El Cocuy would have meant some sleeping in. And the Libertadores bus was long gone, so there was no hope of changing buses either.

That was just the beginning of the long journey. The bus took a different road to the main highway than the one we took on the way from Bogota. This one mostly paved with a few less shear drops into the river. The bus made lots of stops along the way. We got empanadas for breakfast in one of the town while we waited for more passengers again. In another town the driver stopped and popped the hood for a while, but we still left on time so there must not have been a big problem. But it was a sign of things to come.

Some way up the mountain highway, he pulled over and shut the engine off. The bus was overheating. He poured water on it, and some of the other passengers got out to help. Mostly everyone just stood looking at the hot engine. Within a few minutes, a couple of other Gacela buses stopped. I talked to Vanessa about bailing on our bus and getting on the other one. Soon, that's what everyone did, because our bus wasn't going anywhere soon. This new bus was bigger and more comfortable, and had lots of space for everyone. This new bus was an express bus to Bogota, but since we needed to change buses in Tunja and most of our fellow stranded mini bus passengers were also going to Tunja, our driver agreed to stop there.

Our day turned around right away on the big bus. This bus was quicker, and our driver was much more aggressive. Any time we lost on the minibus, we were making up now. At one point, another red bus from a rival company passed him. Well that just pissed him off, and he spent the next few hours racing this bus and trying to catch up and pass. Eventually he did. And nobody died.

Once we were dropped off in Tunja we went into bus station to look for our next bus. We were led over to to a minibus heading to San Gil, but it was completely empty and there was no one around except for a bunch of other empty buses and their drivers. This didn't seen right. We went into the bus terminal and find the bathrooms, and in doing so we also found the much busier part of the bus station with the big buses.

The way it seems to work is there are different companies competing for your business to sell you a ticket. That's why we were originally taken to an empty bus that likely wasn't leaving for hours. We were led down to another minibus, but didn't feel like putting any more time into one of those unless we had to. We were hungry so we grabbed some food, including some tasty hot dogs with cheese inside an empanada, so it was kind of like corn dog but tastier.

And I also bought some chips. And these chips came with a free Simpsons wristband inside, as part of a promotion. I proudly put on my blue Simpsons wristband, and that's when I decided I'd be buying chips for the rest of the trip, trying to collect more wristbands. I like prizes...

A few buses left, and Vanessa was mad. I found a bus to Bucaramanga which also stopped in San Gil, but they said they were full. We stood near the exit of the bus station trying to figure out what to do. Then that bus rolled up one minute later and said they had some space all of a sudden, so we hopped on.

They charged us 80000 pesos and definitely just pocketed it. Nice deal for them, and I didn't care as long we were on a bus. Vanessa sat in the front row, and I sat in the jumpseat next to the bus driver that's over the stairs, and normally occupied by the conductor. The conductor, having scored 40,000 pesos, was happy to sit in the aisle in between.

Like our previous aggressive bus driver, this bus driver was also crazy. People like to pass on blind corners, and as long as they think there's just enough room before the oncoming traffic comes, they'll go for the pass. They also pass on blind corners. And bus drivers have added confidence, I think, because they are up higher and can see further, but Imostly because they're bigger and scare oncoming traffic into slowing down.

Sitting up front as I was, I would have been the first to die. I was tired, but there was no sleep to be had. There was a movie playing, but the screen was behind me so I couldn't watch it. I tried to figure it out from the Spanish I could hear, but got distracted by the constant passing of big trucks on blind corners with oncoming traffic. Vanessa said it was a dubbed Hollywood movie, and it sounded weird.

We finally arrived in San Gil just after dark and decided to take a taxi to the hostel. Our taxi driver was very friendly and laid back. We chatted a bit, and he was doing “Excelentamente!” and charged us the honest price. This is not always a luxury you get when arriving in a new city after dark.

Having finished our hike in El Cocuy a day early, we were a day early for our reservation at the hostel. Fortunately, they had space for us. We went to get dinner. The vegetarian place was closed, which was too bad, since we were craving vegetables. Well, Vanessa more than me, but still me too. Defeated, we went to the place next door called Gringo Mikes, and had pretty normal North American Food.

It was a long travel day, with about 11 hours on the bus altogether, so after a beer, we went straight to bed.

We slept in a little bit, but Vanessa hadn't slept that well thanks to the flickering light in the room. The light was off, but it flashed on every few seconds. I had the bottom bunk that night, and I hung up a towel to block the light. Luckily, she was able to switch to a lower bunk.

We found out that buses wouldn't be running from mid 24 to roughly mid 25, so we were more or less stranded in San Gil for Christmas, even though we didn't really have plans to be elsewhere. The hostel was organizing a Christmas potluck dinner at the hostel, so that would be alright.

We got some breakfast at a restaurant in town, picked up some water and snacks at the supermarket and headed to catch a bus to Barichara. Bariachara is the nearby picture perfect colonial town that's often used for filming by movies and soap operas. Wasting no time, we got the bus just as it was leaving the terminal, and after winding up the mountain, we arrived in the town square of the tiny town.

The colonial town has well maintained white walls on the exteriors of all the buildings, and there's quite a tranquility to be found. But at the same time, the town felt empty. It seems to have no life outside of the tourist industry (and film). We stared checking out shops for their artisan crafts, but each shop had mostly the same things. So maybe they weren't artisan crafts after all? We did see a stitched homer doll that was pretty one of a kind looking. This goes along with all the Simpsons things we'd seen. Seems like the Simpsons are (still) pretty popular in Colombia.

One of the things you can do in town (or rather, from town) is hike down the valley to another nearby town called Guane. Lonely Planet recommends it, but in the heat we weren't too sure we wanted to tackle a hike that would take a few hours. We walked up to check out the the start of the trail on the edge of town and were treated to great view over the valley. But the hike looked very exposed with not a lot of shade, so it might be a little hot for us. Having come from the Canadian winter and only having visited the cooler climates of Bogota and El Cocuy, we haven't really had time to acclimatise to any sort of heat. So we decided to pass on the two hour hike.

And having gotten kind of a late start to the day, we preferred to spend the time exploring the town, which compared to the congestion of San Gil was a nice quiet relief. And while there's not much going on except the white buildings and restaurants, it's still a nice place to be.

We walked up to the top of town and ran into Owen and Lola, who we met at the hostel the previous night. We chatted for a while about Colombia, and other travels. Mongolia sounds very cool, but the food there does not...

It was lunch time and we were hungry, so we tried to find a fancy restaurant for lunch that's in the guidebook, but couldn't find it. It was probably closed for the holidays, and not a lot of places have signs, so it would be easy to miss if it wasn't open, I'd imagine. Instead, we went to a different place that we walked past, and it was very, very delicious! We had chorizo, chicken, beef, salad, and of course fresh juice.

We did quite a bit of wandering around. We walked for a bit more after lunch before getting some ice cream. I went with the rum raisin, and you could really taste the rum! We walked a little bit A little more waking before we grabbed a beer. We continued to enjoy tranquillity of town before heading back to San Gil on the bus.

We for on the wrong bus at first, and I asked another passenger if it was going to San Gil. Before even answering the guy shouted at the driver to stop the bus. Oops. We got off and just missed the correct bus to San Gil so we waited around for half an hour for the next one. The town really started to dazzle as the sun started to set, an the white walls glowed yellow, so it was nice to sit there and enjoy that a little more.

Back in San Gil we started getting things together for the potluck. We bought some food and a five litre bag of water... yes, water comes in big plastic sacs, and it's cheaper than buying bottles by a long shot. It's a little more difficult to manage when you're travelling around like we are, but we'd brought our hydration bladders with us so at least we had somewhere to put the water once we opened the bag. We also picked up the food for potluck.

For dinner we tried to go to a highly recommended vegetarian restaurant for dinner (and our bodies were craving it) but there was a sign on the door saying it was closed until 27. After wandering around looking for an alternative, we got pizza instead. It was fast food pizza by the slice, but they actually cook it by the slice too, one piece at a time. It was pretty good!

Then: travel crisis. Our first of the trip so far. Looking at hostel availability, Santa Marta and Cartagena are both fully booked over new years and there wasn't much available until then either. The coast is busy over the holidays with Colombian tourists as well, so it looked like that extra congestion was going to make things difficult. The perils of travelling in high season...

And it sounds like trek to Ciudad Perdida (the Lost City) will be very busy until a couple of weeks after new years too. This was something that was on our “must do” list when we started our trip. It's a 4-5 day trek through the jungle to an ancient city in the mountains (not totally unlike Machu Pichu) that was only rediscovered in the 1970's, and only safely accessible to tourists within the last 10-15 years. But our interest in it is waning after reading more about four sweaty days in the jungle coupled with the higher demand of the holidays. Access is limited by the government, and only the handful of tour companies have the right to take you in, so you have to go with the one that's leaving the day you want to leave, and they're only allowed to take so many people. So there's some logistical figuring to do, and we only have so much time on our trip. It would be a shame to get up to the coast, struggle to find accommodations, and struggle to get on the trail when we wanted. We'd loose precious time. So we decided that we'll at least have to put off the trek until later in our trip, and given the small amount of scenery you seem to get at the Ciudad Perdida, we're not sure the payoff is there. We might skip it altogether now.

But it still sounds cool, and part of the attraction for me is that we'd be trekking with the same group of people every day, so there would be a sense of comradery and you'd get to know people. And it's pretty cool to hike into the jungle and find a lost ancient city, I mean, Indiana Jones, right? But will put it aside for now and consider it for the end of the trip.

Instead of heading north to the coast, we decided that we'll head south, back through Bogota and to the zona cafatera and spend some time seeing the coffee plantations. Then we'll move north to Medellin and up to the coast after New Year's, and ultimately fly back to Bogota at the end of our trip. We can decide later to do the trek if we want to and if we have time. Zona cafatera sounds really good though.

Phew, figured it out. These are the trials of travel. Unless you book ahead you have to be flexible and ready to change your plans, which can mean missing out altogether, and this is particularly true when travelling in high season. On the other hand, if you book way ahead, that takes a lot of planning, and it's very difficult to get a sense of what you want to do and how long you want to stay in a place when you're just reading about it and looking at pictures on the internet. You really need to get there to get the true sense of how you'll like a place, and so you might want to stay longer, or leave earlier. And then there's the matter of transportation, and bus trips take a long time here, and you can't book bus tickets days in advance. So you have to be able to connect the dots too, which can be difficult to figure out from home, since bus schedules aren't always posted (correctly) on the internet (as we've already found out once) and sometimes not at all.

So you can't win, is what I'm saying. There's advantages to each style, and disadvantages. But avoiding high season would be a good start... But you take what you can get for vacation too...

We didn't do much on Christmas eve. It was a relaxing day. We did a little travel planning, had some showers, and went to the supermarket for more food for the potluck, which I guess is really a Christmas Eve potluck, but that's when people have their parties here. Looking around for a place to eat lunch that had more vegetables than the traditional Colombian meat and rice fare, and settled instead for a lunch at Gringo Mikes, which felt like defeat. We did meet the “Gringo Mike” though.

We strolled past an artisan market and went inside. Vanessa bought me a stainless steel wedding band for 13000 pesos or $6.50. Not bad at all. I almost bought her moustache earrings, but she wouldn't have worn them.

We continued walking the river to the botanical garden, avoiding the rafting touts the best we could. Working even on Christmas eve, it seems. The garden was alright. It sure felt hot outside, and we stopped to get some fresh juice at one of the many stands in the garden. We walked back through town thereby skipping most, but not all of the rafting companies.

Back at the hostel we relaxed in hammocks and read our books while we waited for the potluck dinner. Lola and Owen also returned, and they had actually come from the hospital because Lola had an accident while repelling down a waterfall and bruised badly, but the x-rays confirmed that she luckily didn't break anything. It's good that she's alright, but it puts a wench in their hiking plans. Travel crises come in all shapes... plans change.

They also told us that at the hospital they heard a shooting at one of the markets where we were earlier in the day. Owen used his camera to take some pictures from the hospital, which was up on the hill and had a view, but couldn't really see anything. So we sort of literally dodged a bullet there. No idea what happened though, and there wasn't much news reported about it. Oh Colombia. It's very safe here these days, but not perfect I guess.

Oh, can I talk about ants? Ants. Fried ants are a local delicacy here, and I kind of wanted to try them but hadn't seen them around and wasn't sure I wanted to actively seek them out. Fortunately, a Swedish guy (who strangely had an American accent) had bought some and was sharing. I'm sure you're wondering how they taste, and, well, there's no other way to say it. They mostly taste like dirt. It's not bad, but it's not great either. Maybe a more acquired taste? I ate a couple, but decided it was probably a taste I didn't need to acquire.

Then the potluck! We kept it simply/lazy on our part, and made cheese and crackers with salami, and also made a cucumber and tomato salad with oregano. Both were surprisingly popular. Other dishes included chicken, sausage, salads, tamales (unfortunately mine was raw so I didn't eat it) and bananas with chocolate for dessert. It was a great feast. And just about everyone in the hostel got in on it, so there was about thirty people, and lot's of good conversation.

Oh, and there was rum. So that was fun. Oh, and more fireworks in this town too, which doesn't seem too surprising anymore. Everybody pitched in and cleaned up at 11:30 and went to bed, or went into town to celebrate Christmas eve with the locals. Definitely a pretty mature crowd at the hostel.

Christmas was a very, very slow day for us. We had no plans, and mostly everything was closed. There was still rafting though, and a group form our hostel went. In hindsight, we probably should have gone too. San Gil is really all about the extreme activities you can do here. Rafting, paragliding, downhill mountain biking, caving, repelling down waterfalls, etc. We didn't do any of it... and really weren't taken in by it. The caving didn't look as good as what we did in the Philippines, and we heard the mountain bikes weren't the best. Paragliding would be cool, but I'm not sure about it. Rafting would have been good, but there's lot's of opportunities to do it in lot's of places. Still, I've never done it, so I probably should have just taken the opportunity.

In all honesty, we probably should have skipped San Gil. It made sense to stop there on our way to the coast, but since we had to change our plans, it's not on our way anymore. I also thought I'd like the town better than I did, but the streets and sidewalks were narrow, and it felt very congested. Moreso than Bogota, honestly. But Bariachara was good, and at least we made it to one colonial town. Ticked that box. Unless you're into the extreme sports, you can give San Gil a miss, in my opinion.

But you're going to be stranded somewhere for Christmas anyway, so it really doesn't matter too much. At least you can apparently go rafting on Christmas day here...

For us, we did almost nothing instead. We read for a bit, and had leftover bread and butter for breakfast. Then we read some more. We went out for lunch and almost everything is closed. We went to a fast food place and had hot dogs, or “Perro Caliente.” They were pretty awesome actually. Hot dogs here are different, and have lots and lots of toppings. Including hickory stick type things on top. It's messy, but it's pretty darn good too. Pairs well with fresh lemonade, if you're classy like that...

We walked to the supermarket. Closed. We walked to the market. Closed. We walked to another supermarket. Closed. So we went back towards the hostel and found corner store with big bottles of water and a couple of bags of chips. That will have to do. Then we went back to the hostel and read some more.

Oh, and the chips... So these are the same chips that I bought in Tunja that came with the Simpsons wrist band. These one's had Tazo's in them. What are Tazos you ask? Well, I'm not entirely sure. They look like pogs, but if they were pogs they'd be called pogs, right? At any rate, I'm now collecting Simpsons Tazos, and each one has a graphic of one of the characters on it. These are the souvenirs I will take back from Colombia. I admit that. I'm not proud, nor am I embarrassed. I just am... Deal with it.

I read in a chair for a while, then I read in a hammock. Then it was time to get some dinner, which was not going to be easy to do in a town where everything was closed at lunch.

And not much was open at dinner either. Just a handful of fast food places, really, and we found a pretty nice looking clean place and took a seat. I ordered Cuau Cuau, which is kind of like poutine. But if it was poutine, it would be called poutine, right? (Ok, I'll stop doing that) It's poutine, pretty much. And it had onions and peppers and sausage in it, if I recall. Fancy poutine.

Then the power went out. We were worried this would keep our food from coming out of the kitchen, but they were cooking with gas and kept right on going. It was only the restaurant that lost power, and there was still light on the street, so it wasn't completely dark. Soon, they came around with candles, and Vanessa and I enjoyed a very romantic Christmas fast food poutine dinner (actually, it was pretty slow)...

That evening I tried to video call home, but it crapped out. The internet wasn't quite strong enough. We exchanged some texts instead, wished each other Merry Christmas, and then Vanessa and I headed off to bed.



We've got (another) early bus in the morning. We're moving south!

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Photos

Creepy Bridal Shop in San Gil
Is Frankenstein's Brother the best man at Chuckie's Wedding???

Narrow Streets of San Gil
Bumper to bumper traffic. The sidewalks are often more crowded than this.

Empty Streets on Christmas Day
The dinosaur birds take over